24 May 2012

The Mirage Flower (あんてるさんの花, 2012)

Tonight the
13th Japan
FilmFest Hamburg is hosting the world premiere of The Mirage Flower (aka The Mysterious Flower of Anteru / Anteru-san
no hana, 2012) directed by up and coming young filmmaker Tadaaki Horai. The film is
set in Kichijōji, a bustling neighbourhood of Musashino city.

Shigemitsu Ogi (Paradise
Kiss, Always: Sunset on Third
Street 2) plays Teruo Ando, the quiet unassuming proprietor of an izakaya (Japanese-style bar) which he
has named using his own nickname “Anteru”.
While doing a guest spot on a
local radio station to promote his izakaya,
Anteru learns about a mysterious flower from Peru whose petals can cause realistic
hallucinations for up to three days.

On his way
home, Anteru spots a flower fitting the description at a florist, purchases it
on a whim, and takes it back to the izakaya
to show his wife Namiko (Misato Tanaka
of Bride of Noto). Namiko suggests that they test the flower’s
powers out on three of their regular customers: Kusanagi, a divorcee
with a young son; Chisato, a recently signed musician trying to make a name for
herself; and Takayuki, a part-time security guard with a meddling little
sister.

After
having contact with Anteru’s flower, each of the central characters encounters
an important figure in their lives – someone who has been haunting their dreams and
whose relationship with them is unresolved.
Kusanagi (Hidenori Tokuyama
of Slackers 2) is still suffering
from the pain of his recent divorce and struggling with being a single father to Shuichi. The sudden
reappearance of his ex-wife (Megumi Sato
of Happy Flight) forces him to confront his conflicting feelings towards her.

Chisato (Megumi Yanagi) now considers herself a
professional musician on the up-and-up, but her new record producer is
pressuring her to change her style in order to become more successful. After coming in contact with Anteru’s flower,
Chisato’s former band mate Naomi (Yukina
Kasai) reappears in her life. Naomi
reminds Chisato of her roots as an artist and causes her to question whether or
not she has become a sell-out.

Unlike his
two friends, Takayuki (Ren Mori)
doesn’t seem to have any skeletons in his closest – apart from a troubled
relationship with his parents – but he does have secret fantasies about the
kind of girl he’d like to meet. One day while
on the job the beautiful girl of his dreams turns up and engages him in
conversation. Remembering his encounter with Anteru’s flower,
Takayuki immediately presumes that this girl must be a hallucination. Real or not, Takayuki is happy to go with the
flow for as long as this trip lasts.

The film
unfolds in a dream-like fashion with some scenes shot overly bright to add to
the ethereal quality. The multiple plot
lines weave in and out of one another in a manner reminiscent of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colours Trilogy with a colour
scheme similar to that of The Double Life
of Véronique. The line between what is real and what is hallucination is so
thin that we start to realize that even the envelope story of Anteru and his
wife may not be all that it seems.
The references to Hans Christian Andersen remind us that this is not a
realistic story but a more of a fable about life. It is
a film about unfinished business and second chances, not to mention love, loss
and forgiveness.

The Mirage Flower will be released in Japan on the 16th
of June at the Baus Theatre. For more
information, check out the film’s official website
or the website of the production company Musashino Eiga.